Egg Druid Guide: Back Into The Wild!

Welcome to another deck guide and today we will venture into the Wild with Egg Druid. J4CKIECHAN was the original creator of the deck way back before the Year of the Kraken came to fruition and it was one of the most fun decks to play back then. Curse of Naxxramas was iconic due to the wide range of sticky minions it brought to the card pool and a lot of the key cards of the deck moved out into the Wild format when the rotation kicked in. The Wild meta has always been very polarizing but in the recent couple of months I noticed that there is a lot more variety and I’ve bumped into plenty of players trying extremely outdated decks that offered a lot of fun to me back in the day and the nostalgia factor always seems to kick in when I play in the game mode.

Mech Mage, Handlock, and Oil Rogue were some of my first decks when I started played and over time I bumped into Egg Druid, which became my favorite deck for a long time and I also hit legend with it early last year. Control, one of the more renowned ladder players in Hearthstone hit Rank 1 Legend in Wild this season and if you have been craving for a fresh change from the Standard meta then I heavily recommend you to try the deck out. You won’t need to invest too much dust to enjoy the deck and would need 1280 dust assuming you do not have Curse of Naxxramas or Goblins vs Gnomes cards. There are 8 Wild exclusive cards in the deck that forms an important core of the deck. Let’s break down the deck’s card choices and discuss them in detail.

Card Choice

Living Roots: One of cards that brought archetypes like Malygos Druid to life. Druid was known to be extremely vulnerable to aggressive decks but Living Roots helped the class become more consistent when it comes to dealing with early game minion or developing a small amount of board presence for just 1 mana. It is one of my favorite cards from The Grand Tournament and it sees play in pretty much every Druid deck you’ll find on ladder.

Mark of the Lotus: It is an extremely powerful card from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and when the latest set came out, players like Feno hit high legend ranks with Token Druid thanks to the great synergy it has with any card that helps you flood the board. It is essentially a Power of the Wild but you lose the choose one effect of summoning a 3/2 minion.

Mark of the Wild: An under-used card that fits right into the deck. With so many tokens and sticky minions that have low attack, you can buff them up and get good trades or simply protect other minions through the taunt effect. One of the most obvious synergies if of course Echoing Ooze. Being able to get 2 3/4 taunt minions for 4 mana is quite good to say the least. You can also force your opponent to trade into things like Haunted Creeper and Nerubian Egg, to ensure even if your minions are killed off you maintain board presence through the deathrattle effects.

Power of the Wild:  A staple in Egg and Token Druid, the flexibility the card offers makes it worthwhile to include it. From getting a better board state to simply spawning a 3/2, it offers a lot of flexible value and the cheap buff can help you get in a lot of damage with your tokens and otherwise weak minions.

Savage Roar: This is pretty much the win condition of the deck. All you want to do with the board is to generate a sticky board that gets in some chip damage every single turn and once you have a substantial board, you just use Savage Roar to burst down your opponent from almost full HP in cases. A lot of the times you will be able to win very early in the game just because a lot of people do not care to clear off small tokens that the deck generates, and even if they do clear the board the deathrattle effects that are in the deck can make it really annoying for them. Even if you pull off one Savage Roar on 3 minions on board that’s 8 damage for 3 mana. The card can be a game changer even when you are behind as well by allowing you to either win out of nowhere or by getting very favorable trades and getting back board control.

Soul of the Forest: Against Control and Mid Range decks it is a very powerful tool and it feels only slow against hyper aggressive decks that try to kill you as early as possible. With silence effects not being relevant in either Standard or Wild, it’s very hard to clear the board when you have so many deathrattles on. Try to use the card preemptively when you know your opponent is going to use an AoE spell or to simply dominate on the board. Since deathrattle effects stack, you want to make sure value is not wasted when playing the card.

Argent Squire: A very good 1 drop that works really well with buff effects since you can get a free trade with the Divine Shield without taking any damage at all on the minion. It is a great buff target and you will be able to pull off some great trades with the card. It is also a great minion for taunt effects because the Divine Shield will force your opponent to use multiple resources to get through.

Bloodsail Corsair: There might be a lot of confusion regarding this card but it has been tried and tested by many and there are many logical reasons to pick Bloodsail Corsair over something like Acidic Swamp Ooze. While Acidic Swamp Ooze is a strictly better card, the deck seeks to empty your hand and use Jeeves and Bloodsail Corsair serves the purpose slightly better in that regard. You also have the ability to pull out Patches the Pirate, which is one of the reasons behind the inclusion of this card. Coming back to the primary reason, decks like Pirate Warrior run weapons that mostly have 2 durability and in almost every single scenario they swing their weapons at your face or on a minion if they need to, leaving the weapon with 1 durability. The disposable cost of Bloodsail Corsair combined with the Patches synergy warrants the inclusion of this 1 drop over Ooze, which is a much better minion but its mana cost doesn’t suit the curve of our deck too well.

Dragon Egg: One of the more underused cards in the game, aside from nice decks this card has seen little play since its release. It has great synergy with buff effects and you can generate Whelps on the board quite handily.

Patches the Pirate: One of the most used legendaries in the meta right now, if not the number one in terms of usage. It is essentially a free token with charge when you play one of your two pirates. Unlike other decks that can get a lot of Pirate synergy off with him, it serves different purposes in this deck. It can serve as a great card for combo-ing with Savage Roar. It is also a great target for buffs for instant trades that you might need to do but don’t happen to have the board presence needed.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton: Ideally you want the Warlock hero power for the most part but hero powers like Paladin and Shaman are quite valuable since they allow you to flood the board across multiple turns. Apart from these 3 Mage is an okay 4^th option with other hero powers being not as relevant for the deck and are situational. It is up to you to make the call based on how your game is progressing if you play Finley mid-game or how your hand stacks up if you play him at the start of the game.

Echoing Ooze: Again, a card that saw play in Egg Druid for the most part in the past and didn’t quite make it into other decks. I really liked the design of the card when it came out back in 2014 but it didn’t quite make it into decks for a long time until Egg Druid was born. Buffing Echoing Ooze with things like Mark of the Wild allows you to get 2 copies of a 3/4 taunt for just 4 mana which is just insane. You can combo the card with pretty much any buff effect and it works out great. It also has great synergy with Savage Roar thanks to the distributed stats across two different bodies.

Haunted Creeper: A card that people thought was okay on paper but it went on to become one of the most used cards in the game and it broke into a ton of aggressive decks that seeked to dominate the early game. Haunted Creeper is essentially a 3/4 body broken in parts for 2 mana  and its sticky nature makes it a great pick in the deck that relies on having a large board regardless of stats for burst damage finishes and buffs.

Nerubian Egg: Just like Haunted Creeper, another card that was overlooked by many initially as they were focused on endgame cards that came out in Curse of Naxxramas but within weeks of the card releasing, people realized the potential of the card and how powerful it is. With so many buffs available to you, this can be a really annoying card to deal with due to the extremely powerful deathrattle that the card has. It is also an insurance against AoE spells as well, allowing you to retain some board presence even if your board is wiped out.

Defender of Argus: It was one of the first cards I crafted when I joined Hearthstone and he never seems to disappoint in the decks he does into. It’s a great card to use in the deck because you have so many weak minions on board at all times and buffing them up and giving them taunt not only helps you up the damage output but also get in some great trades or simply prevent your opponent from being too aggressive. There are quite a few high priority taunt targets in the deck like Nerubian Egg and Haunted Creeper and you can force your opponent into killing your deathrattle minions for triggering their effects.

Jeeves: Goblins vs Gnomes had some really interesting (at times, a bit too crazy as well) cards and Jeeves is one of the cards I absolutely adored and included it in a lot of aggressive Paladin and Mech decks when the expansion came out. Since you have so many cheap cards in the deck, dumping out your whole hand is not too hard and you can easily pull out 3 cards from Jeeves. Jeeves often leads to interesting scenarios in games, where your opponents will either try to block your draw by killing him or simply leave him alive because they need cards as well. If it’s the latter then it will be up to you to decide what to do with him based on the cards you drew and if you want to continue letting your opponent draw cards off your Jeeves or not.

How to Play

You might have figured out how the deck plays out by looking at the deck itself by now. You want to establish sticky minions in the early game and then follow up with mass/single target buffs on your board to trade or aggressively push for face damage. It is more like Zoolock than an all out aggressive face deck. You can grind out long games with the deck as well against slow decks because of your deathrattle cards that just manage to keep some form of board presence throughout.

Savage Roar is your primary win condition and you should try to burst your opponent down in one turn. However, if you need to pop Savage Roar early to trade off enemy minions and dominate on board – you should go ahead with it. It also serves as a comeback mechanism by allowing you to trade into big minions using your flooded board state as well.

Mulligan

Unlike my other guides, there isn’t a fixed set of cards that you should be looking for in this case. Your mulligan choices will vary vastly game to game. But in general these cards are must keep:

• Living Roots
• Haunted Creeper
• Argent Squire
• Sir Finley Mrrgglton

But along with these you also need to consider the other cheap drops that are in the deck and how your curve pans out. I often decide what cards I want to play right up to turn 3 based on the cards I get. Planning your buffs is highly essential and you want to get the most value out of your board state. Soul of the Forest can also be a keep depending on how solid your board state looks till up to turn 3. If you have a very good and aggressive curve, Jeeves can also be considered as well if you know your hand will be empty by turn 4.

Matchups

Wild is a very polarizing experience and there are days where  I just keep bumping into Standard decks even at high ranks, while on other days I face Wild specific decks. Regardless, let’s get into the popular matchups I experienced.

Dragon Priest: This matchup is quite easy and even though their early game is punishing against fast decks, if you draw your sticky minions early enough you will be able to ward off their on-curve plays. You need to play around their AoEs and try to have as many deathrattle minions active at all times. Sometimes they have nut draws and you can’t do much about it, but when both players draw equally well you will definitely have the upper hand.

Aggro Shaman: Aggro Shaman can be really sketchy because of their cheap removals and AoEs they pack in these days. Maelstrom Portal is a massive threat to the deck and their cheap weapons can just ruin your day. You need to focus on laying down your sticky minions and setting up good taunts that require multiple trades or resources from your opponent’s side.

Pirate Warrior: I’ve actually had an easy time dealing with aggressive Warrior lists due to how explosive your board state can get. If you manage to mitigate early damage and setup taunts then you are good to go. Defender of Argus has carried me through in some games by blocking high attack weapons. Bloodsail Corsair is highly effective in this matchup as well and you can get some serious value from him.

Renolock: Renolock is one of the most favored matchups for the deck and you can blow them out sometimes as early as turn 4. Since they do not run silence effects and don’t tend to have any early pressure in most games you are good to go. Even if they do heal up and stabilize your sticky minions and their lack of pressure up until the mid game can help you assemble some massive damage with Savage Roar and end the game when they least expect to get killed.

Mid Range Shaman: I faced a ton of Mid Range Shaman running Jade Golem cards and they are extremely hard to deal with because you do not have AoE spells and they run 4 AoE spells, making it extremely difficult to gain traction against them.

Conclusion

This is a very fun deck and if you are looking to venture into Wild then you should definitely check it out. Most of the cards you might need to craft are used in other popular Wild decks too, so you will be able to experiment with them quite handily. I would like to add a disclaimer regarding crafting Wild cards before you go ahead with the deck, do not make these cards unless you are looking for a new experience and have not played during the GvG/Naxxramas meta. That being said, Wild does feel a lot refreshing from the current Standard meta and it brings back some great memories for me. I will be back soon with a Standard deck, until then – take care!

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